Thanksgiving 1974/"Whatever Gets You Through the Night"/Mister Pop (2009)

I was able to see the Clean last night for the second time this year. Easily one of the best live acts on the planet, with three equally great and compelling frontmen/singers. Is Hamish not one of the best singing drummers outside of Don Henley, Rubin Fiberglass, Dennis Wilson and Ringo when he takes his turn? Which had me thinking about other great Thanksgiving shows. Thanksgiving of 1974 should probably remind you of the second to last live appearance of John Lennon. Madison Square Garden on November 28, 1974 to be exact, joining Elton for an encore after losing a bet that "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" which Elton played on would hit number one. Also the night that Lennon began his reconciliation with Yoko. Heavy night on multiple fronts. See photo below. How do you describe Elton's favourite outfit during this era? Take a boiler suit, cut off the shirt part, add sequins and suspenders and an optional sequined beanie cap without a shirt?



This dude smuggled in the 8mm camera thankfully and you can see it here though he really needs to do a proper sound synch to the bootleg of the show and not the cheap and obvious dub of "Funeral for a Friend." Which had me thinking about the Beatles/Elton connection, which of course leads to Ringo's involvement in Born to Boogie, and then the Elton/Bolan connection. And of course, is there a better Beatles/VU-inspired act that has been together for more than thirty years than the Clean. I need to write up a buyers guide to post-1990 Clean recordings (one on Robert Scott's equally great and monumental Bats is in the works as well as David Kilgour's solo work). The Clean's most recent record, 2009's Mister Pop is a great listen, and features a nice 12-string Harrison/McGuinn homage in "In The Dreamlife You Need A Rubber Soul," which still sounds like nobody other than the Clean. If you have been asleep, Mister Pop, Mashed, Syd's Pink Wiring System and Getaway need to be acquired post haste. At the bottom is a video for "Too Much Violence" from 1994's Modern Rock, another gem in the back catalog you may have passed on to your detriment due to the release date.

At the Born to Boogie premiere December 14, 1972. Some days I am partial to the Mick Rock photo of Lou/Iggy/Bowie and some days to this one. Back Off Boogaloo!



I may be partial to the Mickey Finn version below:









Dig Ringo's "Back to Mono" button as well as his monstrous 'do.

"One Set of Words For Me and One Set of Words for Mummy"/Roy Harper "How Does It Feel" live 1970

Who knows how the LA singer-songwriter scene would have played out if people paid attention to Roy at the height of his powers instead of sitting back at the bar. Who did he play with in February of 1970? Flat Baroque and Beserk from that year just sounds better and better as the years roll on and is probably the Harper lp I have revisited most often in the past ten years - the underrated Valentine probably comes next. There is a biting edge to Flat Baroque and Beserk which is few and far between other lps from the same year, and it sits nicely on the shelf with yer other faves from '70. So it is a nice surprise when live footage from the era finally turns up after over 40 years:



Harper's Valentine from 1974 features one of the the most rocking, high energy tracks which Jimmy Page performed on in the 1970's, "Male Chauvinist Pig Blues." Not too dissimilar to The Who's appearance without Daltrey on Mike Heron's solo lp Smiling Men With Bad Reputations on the track "Warm Heart Pastry." Just raises the energy level up a notch. Nobody has posted the actual lp version of the track but here is a live version which does not do the studio version justice though has some excellent work from Page and Harper. GREAT cover on the bootleg, no?



"Commune" from Valentine:

International Hello/Monoshock's "Walk to the Fire" in Mojo/"Steel Wheels" Revisited

Fifteen years goes by quick don't it? Fifteen years between "It's Only Rock n' Roll" and "Steel Wheels." Fifteen years between "Walk to the Fire" and "International Hello." Driving around West Auckland is about as close to an experience of driving around Van Nuys or Reseda as I can get these days. I distinctly remember blaring an early cassette of what became for the most part, "Walk to the Fire" as I drove around the valley on an oven hot day around '95. So when I hear "Someone's Coming" from the International Hello (Holy Mountain) lp blaring on the car deck as I cruise down Railside Avenue on a hot, spring day, it is like having old friends back again - not unlike when you first heard "Mixed Emotions." So, does it surprise me when Monoshock makes the recent Mojo with the George Harrison cover? No, not really - I only wish it was a Macca cover.

"One of America's Outstanding White Guitarists" [sic]/John Fahey in Rock Scene 1973/Blues on Acid: Blind Owl Blues

Can we break down this great photo? Entire case of Dewars White Label Scotch, Schlitz can (or possibly glass tumbler) and a pack of hand roll smokos. Early 70's Takoma logo revamp t-shirt which definitely needs a short run re-screen if we have the time. Ricky? Clothesrack and holding what - a drumstick? Nice setting possibly in Santa Monica? Barry Hansen's place in the Valley? Note talks about Reprise but we all know that "Fare Forward Voyagers (Soldier's Choice)" was about to be unleashed.



On another note, late last year I finally got around to reading Rebecca Davis Winters' great bio of Alan Wilson of Canned Heat entitled "Blind Owl Blues." Let's just say that for Faheyologists, it is an essential entry in the canon. The Blind Owl is there in the critical early to mid-60's era with John (Boston, UCLA, etc) and there are heaps of Fahey-related anecdotes.



Anyone familiar with Fahey's contribution to "Parthenogenesis" on "Living the Blues" will want to check it out. Winters digs out that Fahey wanted to put out Wilson's solo record on Takoma and recorded a bunch of it in 1966. Harmonica master Wilson had recorded a bunch of ragas on chromatic harmonica. Here is the great photo from "Voice of the Turtle" of from left Fahey, Rev. Rubin Lacey, Wilson and David Evans, Ridgecrest, CA 1966 - more on the background to the photo in the book.



Winters also digs out that on Fahey's "Old Girlfriends and Other Horrible Memories" from 1982, that Wilson's harmonica playing is on there uncredited. Winters fails to note which track so I will do it for ya: "Fear & Loathing at 4th & Butternut." I will post that track when I get some time. Now Glenn Jones was assistant engineer on the lp so maybe he could describe the circumstances of the use (which is truly because Fahey loved the guy). When Winters asked Fahey about the lack of credit, Fahey stated in typical John fashion that "I didn't think Wilson would mind." Here is a choice excerpt from the book:

While they were living together, Fahey felt the need to make Wilson improve his level of cleanliness. 'Wilson refused to take baths very often,' he explained. 'And he usually stunk. When he lived with me, I had to frequently fill the tub with water and soap, and then threaten him, force him to take his clothes off and take a bath. And I'd buy him clothes and underwear and stuff. But he didn't smell too good. Very bad . . .

This is only scratching the surface of what is really a great piece of research for the unacknowledged true masters of the era. Maybe we can kickstart the Fahey bio or Dr. Demento can publish his 50-70's memoirs which would be a goddamn hoot.

The Captain on American Bandstand 1966 . . . who knew [repost]

Faster than you can say Dick Clark productions, the clips get taken down from the net. I am not sure how long this one will be back up for:


And all this time I have been waiting for the performance of Sparks on American Bandstand from 1972 to materialize.

Gun Club Interviewed 3/11/82 Madison, WI/"a silver lame type dinner jacket over his small beer belly"/Coolest Retard May/June '82/Misfits at Misfits

Coolest Retard was one of the more comprehensive punk zines to come out of the Midwest. Some of the coverage was a bit dodgy in a "new wave" way, and the ghetto-ization of the nascent hardcore coverage reeked of condescension to my teenage eyes. What snagged my interest at Tower Records was its pro-Black Flag coverage (no doubt influenced by the return of the Effigies back to their Chicago mothership). The review of Damaged below states that "it's so hard to put a Black Flag record or show into words." I also would have noticed the contemporary reviews of Bad Religion, Huskers, Hell Comes to Your House, Wild in the Streets and the Misfits live - all bought and listened to obsessively in real time. Did I really sell back my post '74 Who lps to get store credit to get some of these. I only managed to put my mitts on one copy of Coolest Retard in real time which is the May/June '82 issue excerpted below. Did all those records come out in such a short, six month time frame? A GREAT time period for American music for sure given all the Vegas punk from the UK being churned out and covered in the US zines for some reason. It seemed that any band on Punk & Disorderly could come out to LA and headline Godzillas. Gun Club coverage is pretty fascinating to see how they were received outside of LA. Record collector rock ("RCR") is maligned for some reason. The Cramps and the Gun Club are progenitors of two strands/genres of music that one could say did not exist previous to their existence and is in part due to their record hound excavations. See also John Fahey, Tim Gane and Thurston Moore for similar RCR genre-creation. Medals all around.

There are some great quotes from JLP. Fer instance:

"I can't stand [45 Grave]. It has nothing to do with Rob [Ritter]. I just think horror rock is a waste of time." Three words come to mind on looking back when I saw JLP live: Screaming Lord Sutch.

"[The Fire of Love] is not produced well enough. Not enough balls." Uh, thanks Chris and Tito. I kinda remember Danzig saying something along the same lines with Walk Among Us though probably he insinuated using violence. Best representation of either band IMHO.

"I knew [Kid Congo Powers] before the 'punk rock thing'."

"[Chis Stein and Debbie Harry] knew me before any bands." True though a nice understatement JLP - you were Los Angeles PRESIDENT of the Blondie fanclub c. 1977. Thank you Chris and Debbie for Animal Records and Miami and The Las Vegas Story. Not unlike the patronage of Ocacek on the Bad Brains and Suicide. At least they tried.

Lastly, a excerpt from a Black Flag interview in an earlier Coolest Retard from 1980. I am guessing the same tour that gives us the great Flag rehearsal photo on a Chicago day off - what a work ethic - on the second edition of the essential Rock and the Pop Narcotic. I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall the first time Dez and Chuck got to rap with the Kirkwoods and Bostrom over their shared affinity for the great Tres Hombres lp. Also, some interesting comments on their influences and early LA scene:

JOHN: Do you guys consider yourself a second generation band from LA?
GREG: No, well that may have been kind of how it worked out. We've been aroundfor a long time. Since it had started in LA. We come from the suburbs of LA and we were kind of shut out of the scene in the city.
CHUCK: You weren't a punk if you're from the suburbs.
GREG: They wouldn't give us gigs.
DEZ: We were written up in all the LA magasines when all the second generation bands were getting written up--doesn't mean you're a second generation.
GREG: We were around since early '77.
DIANE: Who would be considered a first generation band and who would be considered a second generation band?
GREG: In LA? The Weirdos would be first generation. The Zeroes, the Germs, the Bags.
KAREN: Are they still together?
GREG: Some of them are.
JOHN: If you were looking for converts. What kind of crowd are you looking to play for?
GREG: We think everybody should be subjected to us, if they like it or not. A lot of bands and people have an attitude of, "OK we're going to have our little crowd here and we're gonna keep certain people out...We're gonna have our own private club," and that's bullshit. Everybody should be dragged in and subjected to it. Go out and make an effort--hitting people on the head, whether they like it or not.
DEZ: For years and years they've been saying in LA that our scene is this and our scene is that.
GREG: Allow everyone in.
CHUCK: That's just like a bogus punk attitude they have in LA which I think is garbage. If the band is for change, then they can have an effect in varying degrees on all kinds of different people. If you're gonna change anything you're not gonna by sitting in your living room, no matter how big it is.
GREG: For example, this club here is great right now. No age limit.
JOHN: How long is it going to stay like that?
GREG: Well now you see.
DEZ: That's what kept it alive from where we're from.
GREG: That's important if someone in Chicago should make sure there's a place without an age limit that anybody can go to. No restrictions, you don't have to look a certain way. Open to any kind of taste which means putting up with some assholes.
JOHN: Do you think a lot of energy you have up on stage is put down on record the way you like it?
GREG: We think it's been done good on record and it could be done good on video.
JOHN: What kind of bands did you listen to before you got into this?
CHUCK: Years ago, I use to listen to Black Sabbath, Iggy Pop all kind of bands
DEZ & GREG: All kinds of bands.
CHUCK: Alice Cooper
CHUCK & DEZ: ZZ Top
DIANE: What do you think of them now?
GREG: We like them. Ha. Ha. Ha. We don't have to agree with their stuff to listen to their records.
JOHN: Would you buy their latest stuff?
GREG: No, like Iggy Pop, people should listen to his early stuff. Raw Power. Fun House. Metallic KO. I Got a Right. Since then he's got really burnt out stuff out. It's kind of a sheme alot of people would consider Iggy Pop by his later stuff.
CHUCK: It's an excuse for new wavers to be like that. He still has some type, sort of personality.
KAREN: Reminds me of Johnny Thunders.
GREG: Someones who's off in that kind of quasi-adult burnt out world. He can support that fantasy. People are captivated by his personality rather than the emotion he use to put out.
DIANE: A lot of press releases that I've seen said you were coming here "straight from the Tomorrow Show" like that's your only claim to fame. What do you think of that?
CHUCK: That was ten minutes
GREG: The promoter, I guess, picked up on that. It has very little effect on people coming to see us.
CHUCK: It was just me speaking my mind.
GREG: It was not something we went out to do. They asked to talk to us and said they have the best intentions.

"Hard Attack" '78/"C'Mon Hilly More Senders, Erasers, Feelies, Mars, Teenage Jesus"/You Geeks! Part 2

Review of MX-80 Sound's classic "Hard Attack" in real time from NYC, USA circa 1978. Issue Number Three from the barn archive of J. Gorton's Beat It! Heavy Stiff Records/pub rock coverage but also great NYC punk coverage as well. That is Eddie and the Hot Rods singer Barrie Masters in the middle of the review. The MacManus cover is a bit misleading as there is a more rockist angle to the whole zine than the cover would indicate. Handwritten note on the back cover indicates a run of 300 copies. There is a mention of a Mumps television news clip (with photo stills in the article from a TV set - those were the days) that I have been trying to track down for a couple years with no luck.






A much needed re-post of the great Rich Stim Esq. "rock star" ad from an old Gulcher in the barn. Other than the waaay, way off comment re Rich's vocal abilities - one he hopefully cringes at in 2011 - Gorton really nails the review without having heard the "Big Hits" ep at the time he reviewed the lp. Beefheart, Beefheart, more Beefheart, with a little VU, humor and some Lumpy Gravy. C'mon, in my mind, Stim's vocal styling is droll, sleepy, funny and laconic all at the same time. Try that on for size. "Catch the usual (for the mid-west it seems) Velvet's touches on 'Summer 77' and 'You're Not Alone."